The Powerful Medici Family

Old Graves 

The Medici were a powerful and influential Florentine family from the 13th to 17th century. There were four popes who were related to the Medici and each other.

• Pope Clement VII (May 26, 1478 – September 25, 1534), born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was pope from 1523 to 1534
• Pope Leo X (December 11, 1475 – December 1, 1521), born Giovanni de' Medici, was pope from 1513 to his death. 
• Pope Pius IV (31 March 1499 – December 9, 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was pope from 1559 to 1565. However, he was only distantly related to the other Medici Popes.
• Pope Leo XI (June 2, 1535 – April 27, 1605), born Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici, was pope from April 1, 1605, to April 27 of the same year.

POPE LEO XI was born on my birthday it seems.  Wonder if he talked a lot and loved books like I do?  I will investigate this at some time in the future.

The House of Medici (/ˈmɛdɨtʃi/ MED-i-chee; Italian pronunciation: [de ˈmɛːditʃi]) was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, seeing the Medici gain political power in Florence — though officially they remained citizens rather than monarchs.    From Wiki

Cosimo Medici was one of the Medici greats.   He had a wonderful library and he opened this to the public.  There were hundreds of commissioned manuscripts that belonged to the Medici Family.

John Gastoni was the last Medici.   The 1966 flood wet a lot of the ancient tombs and so they were resumed to check on the health of the tombs.    The lifting of John Gastoni who is the last medici revealed stairs under the crypt and many bones inside of a robbed crypt.   This was done prior to 1966 because the mud was still undisturbed.  The suspicion is the Grave Diggers were the robbers.

Images @ Eminpee Fotography